Page 260 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

The Drive » Head back to
Ambleside and then follow
the A591 back towards DETOUR:
Windermere. Just before you GRIZEDALE FOREST
reach it, take the turn-off onto
the A592 to Troutbeck Bridge, Start: c Hawkshead (p257)
which climbs up to the lofty Stretching for 6000 acres across the hilltops
Kirkstone Pass – at 454m this between Coniston Water and Esthwaite Water,
is the highest mountain pass
in Cumbria that’s open to road Grizedale Forest (www.forestry.gov.uk/grizedale) is
traffic. It’s steep, but it’s a main a wonderful place for a wander. It’s criss-crossed
A-road so it’s well maintained. by cycling trails, and is also home to more than
40 outdoor sculptures created by artists over the
last 30 years, including a xylophone and a man
d Ullswater of the forest. There’s an online guide at www.
From the windlashed grizedalesculpture.org.
heights of Kirkstone As you leave the Hawkshead car park, you’ll
Pass, the A592 loops immediately see a brown sign for Grizedale, heading
down towards the last right onto North Lonsdale Rd. Just follow the brown
stop on this jaunt around signs from here – it’s 3 miles’ drive from the village.
the Lake District: stately
Ullswater, the national As you skirt up the For an epic end to the
GREAT BRITAIN 18 CLASSIC LAKES
park’s second-largest lake lake’s western edge, it’s trip, strap on your hiking
(after Windermere). It’s worth stopping for a boots and tackle the
an impressive sight, its walk around Gowbar- famous ridge climb via
silvery surface framed by row Park, where there’s Striding Edge to the sum-
jagged fells and plied by a clattering waterfall to mit of Helvellyn, the Lake
the puttering Ullswater admire called Aira Force, District’s third-highest
‘Steamers’ (%017684- and impressive displays mountain at 950m. You’ll
82229; www.ullswater-steam- of daffodils in springtime need a head for heights,
ers.co.uk; round-the-lake adult/ (Wordsworth dreamt up but you’ll feel a real sense
child £13.90/6.95); you can his most famous poem of achievement: you’ve
also hire your own ves- while walking nearby, just conquered perhaps
sels from the Glenridding the one which starts ‘I the finest hill walk in all
Sailing Centre.
wandered lonely as a of England.
cloud...’).

258